in power Vers 7. So that you were an example to all that beleeve in Macedonia and Accaia that is that beleeve according to the judgement of charity for of such onely the visible Churches under the Gospel were constituted being admitted by Baptisme So Peter applyes the word Elect to the visible members of Christ scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Asia 1 Pet. 1.1 2. and Bithinia Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience c. So Paul stileth the Gospel whose most proper residence is in the visible Churches of Christ and their beleeving there in the faith of Gods Elect Paul Tit. 1.1 a Servant of God and a Servant of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect and acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness likewise saith Paul I endure all things for the Elects sake 2 Tim. 2.2.10 that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory Sometimes this word Elect is applyed to particular members of the visible Church 2 Joh. 1.13 the elder unto the Elect Lady and her Children 1 Joh. 1.13 whom I love in the truth the Children of thine Elect Sister great thee Amen Sometimes this word Elect is applyed to the universall visible Church of Christ but most particularly to all right beleevers therein And shall not God avenge his own Elect Luk. 18.7 which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you he will avenge them speedily and so he did avenge divers times the visible Church of the Jews upon their Adversaries as he now doth on the behalf of the Church of the Gentiles against their enemies And sometimes this word Elect is applyed more close as to the invisible members of Christ which are those that purely worship him in spirit and in truth And the Psalmist saith Thou choosest to thy self the godly man Psal 4. for these are such as are known to God onely and not to men infallibly Hence saith the Apostle the foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth those that are his infallibly for that 's implyed 2 Tim. 2.19 To this point our Saviour speaks Then shall he send his Angels and gather together his Elect from the four winds Mark 13.27 Mat. 24.31 from the utmost part of Heaven And he shall send his Angels with the great sound of Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other So that the scope of the new Testament concerning Election runs according to the scope of the old but neither speaks for the foresaid threefold erroneous elections CHAP. IV. Answering some familistical Objections against the premises FOr they deny all Elections and rejections of mankind as well those that are true as those that are false both from several Texts which I have answered in my second Treatise Eccles 12.7 and from Eccles 12.7 the words are Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God that gave it that is say they the body being returned to his dust the spirit returns to God to be essentially his nature and therefore there shall be no individuals of men to be saved or damned to eternity for all shall be God This Objection takes for granted that to be a truth Answ 1 which is a lye and unpossible for Psal 147.5 The Text affirms Psal 147.5 God is infinite and the Heathen man could say He is all Center and no circumference and an infinite admits of no diminition nor addition for then it ceaseth to be infinite Secondly I answer according to the being of a thing such is its operation therefore if the spirit which is in man be infinite let it produce suitable operations and wee 'l beleeve it as did our Lord that was personally God-man yet the divine nature did not animate a humane body as doth the soul and spirit of man as these men dream and he did produce suitable actions for he laid down his humane body in death and took it up again he walked on the waters with the soals of his feet and in an instant turned water into wine and gave the man sight that was born blind And if they be God why do they not cause the Sun to go back so many degrees as pleaseth them and command the Seas and the winds to obey them for Christ by his heavenly Doctrine confirmed by numerous miracles was mightily declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 2 Tim. 3.12 13. but you are declared to be as you are as saith the Apostle that is evill men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Again I answer 'T is true The spirit returneth to God who gave it but it is one thing that it returns to God another thing that it returns to be God which is impossible as is proved But you will demand of me in what sense according to the Text doth the spirit of man return to God that gave it I answer negatively and affirmatively Negatively thus The Spirit is no neerer in its nature to the nature of God when it is out of the body than when it is in the body for both body and spirit do live and move and have their being in his essence for the Text saith Act. 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being Again I answer As that being which all created natures have is bottomed in the being and essence of God on which it depends so as it cannot move the breadth of a hair further or neerer by its own local motion nor by death neither by annihilating it self for even wicked men are so bottomed upon his being that they may be to be tormented to eternity although they seek death or annihilation so saith the Text. They shall seek death Rev. 6. and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flye from them and the ground why he will thus continue men and Angels to eternity is for his final ends sake for which he made all that they might be Vessels of honour or dishonour according to their works Secondly Affirmatively I answer the spirit of man returns neerer to God in its own apprehension of him when it is out then when it was in the body both of good and bad men for while it is in the body there are several mediums that do interpose its apprehensions of God but when it hath left the body these mediums do vanish and therefore it hath then a more immediate apprehension of God But you will ask me what are these mediums I answer they are primarily three The first is its body of sense in which it is involved and the spirit while it lives in it receives all objects by its five senses as doth a Bruit The second medium is the frame of this inferior World it
their power and houre of darkness upon this distressed Creature sitting in darkness and can see no light yet God for his glory sake secretly preserves the minde so to himself That when Satan thinks himself surest of his prey God then will set the soul at liberty by his word and spirit in this life and then will in effect say to Satan as of Job What sayest thou to my Servant Job c. or else by taking him into eternal glory and so Satan looseth his prey for ever Doth not Heman mean Quest when he saith Thy terrors hath cut me off as did Job I choose strangling rather then to live then if Heman or Iob had strangled themselves had not God then lost his glory in that Satan had got the prey I answer Answ Satan had not got his prey though he had hanged himself nor God lost the glory of his grace but the redundancy thereof to eternity How is this possible to be true Quest for they which do so die in an act of sin which nature abhorrs that is the destruction of it self I answer You must consider what capacity Heman and Iob were in namely right beleevers therefore not in an estate of unbeleef as was Achitophel and Judas that hanged themselves for dying such they are cut off from all pardon of sin because the sin of unbeleef in such cuts off all hope of pardon And whereas you say they died in the act of sin it is true yet it is as true in this case they are not themselves by reason of their deep trouble and distemper of minde therefore if Iob had hanged himself yet it might be said of him as Paul in another case That which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that do I. If I do that which I would not I consent to the Law that it is good Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me So might Iob in this case say It is not I Rom. 7.15 but my most deep distemper that dwells in me which strangled me Again Whereas you sty that in this case he had departed this world in the act of sin I answer it is true a sin in a transcendent degree for if God forbids to murther another man much more a mans self yet saith our Lord Mat. 12.31 All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven therefore this being not the sin against the holy Ghost in Iob a beleever would have been pardoned unto him for there is no man in Heaven nor never shall but Christ himself but came thither by a pardon of his sin Again I answer It is proved that all men who by a patient well-doing seek for honour and glory immortality and eternal life having not as yet the gift of faith and dying without it they ascend to the heavenly glory through the universal imputation of Christs righteousness notwithstanding the universal imputation of Adams one sin one committed nor notwithstanding their own sin against Christ for they ascend to Heaven in the same right that all mankind do dying in infancy which have the seed of original sin in them therefore much more a right beleever as in this case of Iob is presupposed for this particular act of sin so committed cannot totally extinguish the internal habit of inherent righteousness wherof justifying faith is one branch which cannot be extinguished but by a custom in sin which in the minde of man produces another nature therefore this internal habit did detain in it self a virtual tendency to Christ its most proper Object although but as smoaking flax or a bruised Reed therefore in the very act of strangling Faiths virtual force will move to Christ its own objects as Ionas in the deep Seas from out the Whales belly the motions of his minde moved to Christ the true Temple then standing at Ierusalem so holy men in this disconsolate condition in the depth of sorrows and distractions their memory is renewed in beleef to receive comfort in the satisfactory righteousness of Iesus Christ as for example in London at the Counter in the Poultry Mr. Mercer being arrested in his passion slew the Sergeant and was hanged in the place The godly Ministers and his friends desired him when he was turned off the ladder during the time of his strangling if he did finde any divine consolation from God to give them some manifestation thereof the which he did by lifting up both his hands three times to his head notwithstanding his former deep sorrowes and his present pain his body so hanging yet he had the use of his minde and memory to give them the foresaid sign Doubtless so it is in this case concerning godly men that when Satan thinks himself surest of his prey he is furthest from attaining his desired end And thus God turns the rebound of his glory to himself in the salvation of holy men from so great a misery Also I remember Mr. Fox in the Acts and Monuments of the Church of a Martyr saith His godly friends desired him when he was in the flames that if such a sharp dissolution were sufferable with comfort to give some sign to them And notwithstanding the sharpness of the flame he being much burnt and their expectation as it were past hope yet then his comfort was internally so clear that his minde remembred the promise to his friends and gave a sign by lifting up both his hands three times to his head in those fierce flames to the great amazement of the people and the establishment of the godly at the which the people gave a great shout Is it so that the Saints of God by not improving their graces according to their measure received may turn that affliction which God inflicts on them for an honourable tryal into a dishonourable sharp chastizement as did Job under the execution of Satans second Commission Then hence observe that this case carries along in it a contingency as to the Saints of God and not an immutable current which cannot be turned by them another way for here we see Iob altered its course wherefore God proceeded against him for his fault as is proved therefore ye Saints of God keep to the exercise of your graces according to your measure or degrees given you by the word and Spirit of truth and be sure to operate according to the Scriptures direction for as from thence did arise the truth of your grace so from thence must arise your growth in grace and perseverance therein therefore make not the consultations with flesh and blood nor your vain imaginations your Religion as do those Saints which fall away to be Quakers and Familists not onely to the destruction of themselves but to the destruction of the Faith of many others by calling their fleshly wisdom and vain imaginations by the name of Christ and the divine
in mercy prevent it not Again I met with one of your elder Brethren in evil a Familist and he objected unto me against the Scriptures because to King Iames learned Broughton made it appear that many places in the Scripture were falsly translated not agreeable to the original Copy therefore the Scriptures to us was altogether uncertain thus he said although he did know that King by the godly learned mended those defects and caused the Bible to be new printed and it is judged to be the best Translation that is extant but his end in all this is the same as is yours to have us beleeve that that Light within to be the only true Scriptures which you call the tender part of man but he then further objected that the Scriptures are altogether uncertain to us for who knowes that original Copy that Broughton alleages were that of the Apostles for since their time they have past through many corrupt hands generation after generation I answer So did the old Testament in Moses dayes for many hundreds of years Generation after Generation past thorough corrupt hands for the Israelites themselves sometimes fell to Idolatry sometimes in their Captivity scattered among the Heathens yet the Apostles took it for granted the original Copies of Moses and the Prophets were so sound as to be a ground of truth to the Churches for to them he saith Whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And our Lord Jesus Christ he took it for granted also for he makes use of the Scriptures Luk. 4. that were written by Moses and so through patience and comfort of the Scriptures repelled the Tempter and his temptations If ye demand of me what I mean by the internal or intrinsical glory of Jehovah 198 I mean his unmeasurable Answ or infinite Essence or his essential glory in the internal relations of the Elohims Father Word and holy Ghost and these three are one saith St. John And to this internal essential glory no created nature can approach nor comprehend what it is therefore not the glorified humane body of the Lord Jesus Christ now glorified in Heaven although in personal Union with the second Elohim much lesse the glorified Saints And this essential glory in Jehovah is not more glorious in any place or thing in one than another but is as glorious in himself and to himself beyond all Worlds where no created things are If ye object That Heaven is his Throne and his highest glory wherein is the Lord Jesus Christ and glorified Saints and Angels Answ All this is true if it be rightly understood that all this is but his external glory resulting from his Creatures in relation to his final end for which he made all things in order to glorifie himself in the Vessels of honour or dishonour to eternity as at large is proved in my second Treatise but all this no way adds to his internal divine glory for infinite as such admits of no addition nor diminution therefore your dreames and your Brethren the Familists that the Essence of God is the tender part of man as say you the same light that is in God and his Essence as say they that all shall return into his Essence and no individuals to be damned or saved to eternity both these from hence appeares to be a most blasphemous whimsey And for conclusion take this observation that you Quakers and your elder Brethren in evil the Familists are not onely Atheists because your Tenents lead to beleeve there is no God for you deny Jehovah our Elohims to be one Jehovah but also do deny mans reasonable soul as animating his body since you fansie a thing in man which you call your God your Christ as before is proved wherefore from your Tenents one asked this Question If you inclose a living man in a Vessel that the Aire cannot enter and opening it finde him dead then tell me what you can see therein more than his dead Corps what then is the reasonable soul in man you so much talk of To this man I answer If the reasonable soul be there together with his Corps you cannot see it therefore you know not whether it be there or no for your eyes see not the Wind nor Aire nor the Angels good or bad nor God himself although he be so neer to us as is proved and the reason of all this is that your eye or the eye of any man else cannot see any thing but that which is of some Colour for Colours are the proper object of our sight therefore because the Wind the Aire mans Soul Angels good or bad and Gods Essence being all without colour your eye cannot discern them for they are invisible to it will you therefore conclude there is no Wind no Aire no reasonable Soul no Angels good or bad nor no God you may as well infer you have no Face for you never saw it but by a Glasse or some such help FINIS ERRATA PAg. 13. Line 24. read and p. 14. l. the last adde the word not p. 16. l. 29. for the word gift r. gilt p. 18. l. 15. adde the word for p. 30. l. 13. leave out the word as p. 56. l. 13. for left r. felt p. 46. l. 2. add the word man p. 103. l. 30. for complains r. explains p. 108. l. 2. for then r. they